Genesis 29:32

Summary

Leah conceives and bears a son, whom she names Reuben. The verse explains the name through her own words: she declares that Yehovah has seen her affliction, and she anticipates that her husband will now love her.

Key words

• Ta.har ("she conceived", H2029) — qal narrative form (vav-consecutive), marking the next event in the story sequence.
• tik.Ra' ("she called", H7121H) — qal narrative form; introduces the naming act as the next link in the chain of events.
• re.'u.Ven ("Reuben", H7205) — proper name; phonetically echoes ra.'Ah ("he has seen", H7200G) used two words later, linking the name to the reason given for it.
• ra.'Ah ("he has looked/seen", H7200G) — qal perfect, denoting a completed act attributed to Yehovah, forming the basis of Leah's naming statement.
• ye.'e.ha.Va.ni ("he will love me", H0157G + H9030 suffix) — qal imperfect, expressing an expected or hoped-for future action, contrasted with the completed action of ra.'Ah.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of three narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs — Ta.har ("she conceived", H2029), Te.led ("she bore", H3205), and tik.Ra' ("she called", H7121H) — each introduced by the narrative va ("and", H9001), which presents the events as a straightforward temporal sequence: conception, birth, naming. This chain is then interrupted by a causal clause introduced by ki ("for/that", H3588A), which shifts to Leah's direct speech and explains the motivation behind the name she gave.

Within that speech, two further clauses are joined by additional occurrences of ki: one reporting a completed divine action — ra.'Ah ("he has looked", H7200G), qal perfect, referring to Yehovah (Yah.weh, H3068G) — and one expressing Leah's anticipation of a future consequence — ye.'e.ha.Va.ni ("he will love me", H0157G), qal imperfect. The perfect/imperfect contrast marks a logical sequence: because the completed act of seeing has occurred, the anticipated act of loving is expected to follow. The construct forms 'on.yi ("my affliction", H6040 + H9020) and 'i.Sh ("my husband", H0376H + H9020) attach possessive suffixes directly to the nouns, a compact construction that Hebrew uses instead of separate possessive words. The name re.'u.Ven (H7205) is not itself glossed as a phrase in this data, but its sound overlaps with ra.'Ah ("he has seen", H7200G), the verb Leah uses to justify the name.

Differences between versions

The LXXSWETE adds τῷ Ἰακώβ ("to Jacob") after "son," specifying the father, an element not present in the Hebrew word list given. The LXXSWETE and VULCLEM both render Yah.weh (H3068G) with a generic divine title (κύριος / Dominus) rather than transliterating the name.